My People (Modern Plays) - Softcover

It was the hardline pieties of chapel life for which [Evans] reserved his greatest rancour - a point well illustrated in Steffan Donnelly's adaptation . . . intense . . . Donnelly . . . weaves the tales into a form of increasingly nightmarish, collective hallucination that culminates in a bizarre beach party in which the deacons dance around in their swimwear. * Guardian * fully embraces the biblically bad behaviour contained in Evans' stories * Stage * [Caradoc Evans's] characters are sketched in acid-sharp prose; the harshness of their lives and the cruelty and hypocrisy of their chapel-oriented society is portrayed with biting humour. . . . Steffan Donnelly's clever adaptation . . . preserves much of Evans's language and translates his extraordinary blend of fact and fiction to the stage by introducing striking expressionist instants into naturalistic-style action. * Observer *

In a chapel service in rural Wales, all is not what it seems . . .

A stage adaptation of one of the most celebrated and controversial short-story collections in the history of Anglo-Welsh literature. Originally published in 1915, the searing stories of My People - darkly comic, poignant, with flashes of savagery - exposed the hypocrisy and avarice nestling side-by-side in a Nonconformist community in the rural West Wales of the early 1900s.

First produced n the centenary year of the publication of the original collection, this radical reimagining makes us question whether the events depicted in these remarkable stories are consigned to the past, or can we discern uncomfortable parallels in our modern life?

This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere of the stage adaptation on 5 November 2015 at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, in a co-production with Invertigo Theatre.